Mechanism to enable aligned channel access

ABSTRACT

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and devices related to aligned channel access. A device may perform a first backoff countdown on a first link associated with a first station device (STA) of the device, wherein the device is a multi-link device (MLD). The device may detect a second backoff countdown associated with a second STA of the MLD after the first backoff countdown reaches zero. The device may determine to hold the first backoff countdown at zero based on the value of the second backoff countdown. The device may transmit in synchronization on the first link and on the second link from the first STA and the second STA respectively based on holding the first backoff countdown at zero.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.63/016,847, filed Apr. 28, 2020, the disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference as if set forth in full.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for wirelesscommunications and, more particularly, to mechanism to enable alignedchannel access.

BACKGROUND

Wireless devices are becoming widely prevalent and are increasinglyrequesting access to wireless channels. The Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE) is developing one or more standards thatutilize Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) in channelallocation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an example network environmentfor aligned channel access, in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for a multi-link device(MLD) between two logical entities, in accordance with one or moreexample embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for a multi-link device(MLD) between AP with logical entities and a non-AP with logicalentities, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 4 depict illustrative schematic diagrams for aligned channelaccess, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of illustrative process for anillustrative aligned channel access system, in accordance with one ormore example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates a functional diagram of an exemplary communicationstation that may be suitable for use as a user device, in accordancewith one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine upon which anyof one or more techniques (e.g., methods) may be performed, inaccordance with one or more example embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a radio architecture in accordance withsome examples.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example front-end module circuitry for use in theradio architecture of FIG. 8, in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example radio IC circuitry for use in the radioarchitecture of FIG. 8, in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example baseband processing circuitry for use inthe radio architecture of FIG. 8, in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustratespecific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practicethem. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical,process, algorithm, and other changes. Portions and features of someembodiments may be included in, or substituted for, those of otherembodiments. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all availableequivalents of those claims.

Multi-link operation (MLO) is a key IEEE 802.11be (“11be”) feature whichallows a device to communicate to another device using multiple links ondifferent channels/bands. A device supporting multiple links is called amultilink device (MLD). In general, some STA MLD may have high leakagewhich prevents it from simultaneously transmitting and receiving ondifferent links. Such a device is called non-simultaneous transmitreceive (STR) MLD and is typically expected to be a non-AP STA MLD. Notethat such a device may not be able to utilize the benefits of multi-linkin UL using EDCA based channel access. This occurs as whenever the STAis transmitting on link 1, the leakage may cause its other link tosuspend EDCA.

In an MLD, there are multiple links that the MLD can transmit andreceive data. For example, if an MLD comprises two Wi-Fi devices andcited (e.g., to STAs), one of these two STAs may transmit on 2.4 GHz andthe other may transmit on 5 GHz simultaneously. In that scenario, whenthe first STA transmit on its link, energy of the transmission may leakinto the length of the second STA. In that sense, if both aretransmitting in a frequency band that is close to each other, thisintroduces interference in each other's links. One STA may think itslink is busy due to that interference. In that case, that STA may not beable to contend for channel access in order to transmit its data. Thiscould happen on the transmit or receive chain of the STA.

The most straight-forward way to solve this problem is to ensure thatthe transmissions from the STA MLD on the two links start at the sametime. However, using the baseline EDCA mechanism the opportunities ofthe STA MLD having zero back-off count at the same time in both links islow.

In one or more embodiments, an aligned channel access system may addressthe problem of how to increase the probability of simultaneoustransmission by a STA MLD.

One way to achieve this simultaneous transmission capability is throughpoint coordination function inter-frame space (PIFS) access similar tothe channel access for 80+80 type transmissions. Essentially, whenever aSTA wins channel access in link 1 through baseline EDCA, it checkswhether the STA in link 2 has detected the medium to be idle for PIFS.If it is, the STA can initiate a TXOP on both links simultaneously. Somevariation of this idea has also been proposed, namely,

-   -   The STA performs enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA)        based channel access on one link and only PIFS based access in        the other.    -   In addition to energy detect, the STA may also consider the        network allocation vector (NAV) settings on the other link prior        to PIFS based access.    -   After PIFS-based channel access a STA adds the remaining backoff        counter value to the next backoff countdown.

The PIFS-based access proposals are unfair to other STAs on that channelas with respect to those STAs the EHT STA has chance to get more channelaccess.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems,methods, and devices for a mechanism to enable aligned channel accessfor 11be specific multi-link operation (MLO).

In one or more embodiments, a aligned channel access system mayfacilitate synchronizing transmissions on multiple links within an MLD,such that each STA of the MLD transmits in synchronization with anotherSTA on separate links. For example, if one of these STAs wins access toa channel to transmit on its link, that STA may not transmit right awaybut instead wait for the second STA's backoff countdown reacheszero—indicating that the second STA can now transmit on its link—so thatboth STAs can transmit simultaneously. In that case, one STA has tocheck the other STA's status before starting its own transmission. Forexample, one STA may determine that the other STA is performing abackoff countdown or it may determine how large is the backoff countdown is and compare it to a threshold value before deciding to wait orgo ahead and transmit. For example if the backoff countdown is toolarge, the first STA may still transmit without waiting for the secondSTA. However, if the first STA determines that the backoff countdown isbelow the threshold value, the first STA made then determined to waituntil the second STA has countdown to zero so that they can bothtransmit simultaneously. It should be understood that each STA will haveits own backoff countdown value that may be different from each other.

In one embodiment, a aligned channel access system may allow an STA MLDwith small enough difference in backoff count-down values on two linksto transmit only when both its constituent STAs have counted down tozero. Essentially, this means if a STA in the MLD counts down to zeroearlier than the other STA, then it pauses its backoff count at thatvalue instead of transmitting right away. In one or more embodiments, analigned channel access system may also propose an alternative fix to thepoint coordination function IFS (PIFS)-based channel access that isfairer to other STAs in a given link.

An aligned channel access system may improve uplink (UL) throughput forthe EHT STA without affecting fair channel access for the other STAs.

The above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are notmeant to be limiting. Numerous other examples, configurations,processes, algorithms, etc., may exist, some of which are described ingreater detail below. Example embodiments will now be described withreference to the accompanying figures.

FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an example network environmentof aligned channel access, according to some example embodiments of thepresent disclosure. Wireless network 100 may include one or more userdevices 120 and one or more access points(s) (AP) 102, which maycommunicate in accordance with IEEE 802.11 communication standards andwhich may be multi-link devices (MLDs). The user device(s) 120 may bemobile devices that are non-stationary (e.g., not having fixedlocations) or may be stationary devices, which also may be multi-linkdevices (MLDs).

In some embodiments, the user devices 120 and the AP 102 may include oneor more computer systems similar to that of the functional diagram ofFIG. 6 and/or the example machine/system of FIG. 7.

One or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may beoperable by one or more user(s) 110. It should be noted that anyaddressable unit may be a station (STA). An STA may take on multipledistinct characteristics, each of which shape its function. For example,a single addressable unit might simultaneously be a portable STA, aquality-of-service (QoS) STA, a dependent STA, and a hidden STA. The oneor more illustrative user device(s) 120 and the AP(s) 102 may be STAs.The one or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 mayoperate as a personal basic service set (PBSS) control point/accesspoint (PCP/AP). The user device(s) 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) and/orAP(s) 102 may include any suitable processor-driven device including,but not limited to, a mobile device or a non-mobile, e.g., a staticdevice. For example, user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may include, auser equipment (UE), a station (STA), an access point (AP), a softwareenabled AP (SoftAP), a personal computer (PC), a wearable wirelessdevice (e.g., bracelet, watch, glasses, ring, etc.), a desktop computer,a mobile computer, a laptop computer, an Ultrabook™ computer, a notebookcomputer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, ahandheld device, an internet of things (IoT) device, a sensor device, aPDA device, a handheld PDA device, an on-board device, an off-boarddevice, a hybrid device (e.g., combining cellular phone functionalitieswith PDA device functionalities), a consumer device, a vehicular device,a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a non-mobile ornon-portable device, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a PCS device,a PDA device which incorporates a wireless communication device, amobile or portable GPS device, a DVB device, a relatively smallcomputing device, a non-desktop computer, a “carry small live large”(CSLL) device, an ultra mobile device (UMD), an ultra mobile PC (UMPC),a mobile internet device (MID), an “origami” device or computing device,a device that supports dynamically composable computing (DCC), acontext-aware device, a video device, an audio device, an A/V device, aset-top-box (STB), a blu-ray disc (BD) player, a BD recorder, a digitalvideo disc (DVD) player, a high definition (HD) DVD player, a DVDrecorder, a HD DVD recorder, a personal video recorder (PVR), abroadcast HD receiver, a video source, an audio source, a video sink, anaudio sink, a stereo tuner, a broadcast radio receiver, a flat paneldisplay, a personal media player (PMP), a digital video camera (DVC), adigital audio player, a speaker, an audio receiver, an audio amplifier,a gaming device, a data source, a data sink, a digital still camera(DSC), a media player, a smartphone, a television, a music player, orthe like. Other devices, including smart devices such as lamps, climatecontrol, car components, household components, appliances, etc. may alsobe included in this list.

As used herein, the term “Internet of Things (IoT) device” is used torefer to any object (e.g., an appliance, a sensor, etc.) that has anaddressable interface (e.g., an Internet protocol (IP) address, aBluetooth identifier (ID), a near-field communication (NFC) ID, etc.)and can transmit information to one or more other devices over a wiredor wireless connection. An IoT device may have a passive communicationinterface, such as a quick response (QR) code, a radio-frequencyidentification (RFID) tag, an NFC tag, or the like, or an activecommunication interface, such as a modem, a transceiver, atransmitter-receiver, or the like. An IoT device can have a particularset of attributes (e.g., a device state or status, such as whether theIoT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available fortask execution or busy, and so on, a cooling or heating function, anenvironmental monitoring or recording function, a light-emittingfunction, a sound-emitting function, etc.) that can be embedded inand/or controlled/monitored by a central processing unit (CPU),microprocessor, ASIC, or the like, and configured for connection to anIoT network such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example,IoT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators,toasters, ovens, microwaves, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools,clothes washers, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners,thermostats, televisions, light fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers,electricity meters, gas meters, etc., so long as the devices areequipped with an addressable communications interface for communicatingwith the IoT network. IoT devices may also include cell phones, desktopcomputers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), etc. Accordingly, the IoT network may be comprised ofa combination of “legacy” Internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop ordesktop computers, cell phones, etc.) in addition to devices that do nottypically have Internet-connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).

The user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may also include mesh stationsin, for example, a mesh network, in accordance with one or more IEEE802.11 standards and/or 3GPP standards.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), andAP(s) 102 may be configured to communicate with each other via one ormore communications networks 130 and/or 135 wirelessly or wired. Theuser device(s) 120 may also communicate peer-to-peer or directly witheach other with or without the AP(s) 102. Any of the communicationsnetworks 130 and/or 135 may include, but not limited to, any one of acombination of different types of suitable communications networks suchas, for example, broadcasting networks, cable networks, public networks(e.g., the Internet), private networks, wireless networks, cellularnetworks, or any other suitable private and/or public networks. Further,any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may have any suitablecommunication range associated therewith and may include, for example,global networks (e.g., the Internet), metropolitan area networks (MANs),wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), or personal areanetworks (PANs). In addition, any of the communications networks 130and/or 135 may include any type of medium over which network traffic maybe carried including, but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted-pairwire, optical fiber, a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) medium, microwaveterrestrial transceivers, radio frequency communication mediums, whitespace communication mediums, ultra-high frequency communication mediums,satellite communication mediums, or any combination thereof.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) andAP(s) 102 may include one or more communications antennas. The one ormore communications antennas may be any suitable type of antennascorresponding to the communications protocols used by the user device(s)120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126 and 128), and AP(s) 102. Somenon-limiting examples of suitable communications antennas include Wi-Fiantennas, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.11 family of standards compatible antennas, directional antennas,non-directional antennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patchantennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas,omnidirectional antennas, quasi-omnidirectional antennas, or the like.The one or more communications antennas may be communicatively coupledto a radio component to transmit and/or receive signals, such ascommunications signals to and/or from the user devices 120 and/or AP(s)102.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), andAP(s) 102 may be configured to perform directional transmission and/ordirectional reception in conjunction with wirelessly communicating in awireless network. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124,126, 128), and AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform such directionaltransmission and/or reception using a set of multiple antenna arrays(e.g., DMG antenna arrays or the like). Each of the multiple antennaarrays may be used for transmission and/or reception in a particularrespective direction or range of directions. Any of the user device(s)120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP(s) 102 may be configuredto perform any given directional transmission towards one or moredefined transmit sectors. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., userdevices 124, 126, 128), and AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform anygiven directional reception from one or more defined receive sectors.

MIMO beamforming in a wireless network may be accomplished using RFbeamforming and/or digital beamforming. In some embodiments, inperforming a given MIMO transmission, user devices 120 and/or AP(s) 102may be configured to use all or a subset of its one or morecommunications antennas to perform MIMO beamforming.

Any of the user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), andAP(s) 102 may include any suitable radio and/or transceiver fortransmitting and/or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in thebandwidth and/or channels corresponding to the communications protocolsutilized by any of the user device(s) 120 and AP(s) 102 to communicatewith each other. The radio components may include hardware and/orsoftware to modulate and/or demodulate communications signals accordingto pre-established transmission protocols. The radio components mayfurther have hardware and/or software instructions to communicate viaone or more Wi-Fi and/or Wi-Fi direct protocols, as standardized by theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11standards. In certain example embodiments, the radio component, incooperation with the communications antennas, may be configured tocommunicate via 2.4 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n,802.11ax), 5 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax), or 60 GHZchannels (e.g. 802.11ad, 802.11ay). 800 MHz channels (e.g. 802.11ah).The communications antennas may operate at 28 GHz and 40 GHz. It shouldbe understood that this list of communication channels in accordancewith certain 802.11 standards is only a partial list and that other802.11 standards may be used (e.g., Next Generation Wi-Fi, or otherstandards). In some embodiments, non-Wi-Fi protocols may be used forcommunications between devices, such as Bluetooth, dedicated short-rangecommunication (DSRC), Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) (e.g. IEEE 802.11af,IEEE 802.22), white band frequency (e.g., white spaces), or otherpacketized radio communications. The radio component may include anyknown receiver and baseband suitable for communicating via thecommunications protocols. The radio component may further include a lownoise amplifier (LNA), additional signal amplifiers, ananalog-to-digital (A/D) converter, one or more buffers, and digitalbaseband.

In one embodiment, and with reference to FIG. 1, AP 102 may facilitatealigned channel access 142 with one or more user devices 120.

In one or more embodiments, the aligned channel access 142 may be amechanism, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of thepresent disclosure that allows a plurality of STAs with an MLD tocoordinate and synchronize their transmissions in order to minimizeinterference between links of the MLD.

It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes ofillustration and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for a multi-link device(MLD) between two logical entities, in accordance with one or moreexample embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 2, there are shown two multi-link logical entities oneither side which includes multiple STAs that can set up links with eachother. A multi-link logical entity may be a logical entity that containsone or more STAs. The logical entity has one MAC data service interfaceand primitives to the logical link control (LLC) and a single addressassociated with the interface, which can be used to communicate on thedistribution system medium (DSM). It should be noted that a Multi-linklogical entity allows STAs within the multi-link logical entity to havethe same MAC address. It should also be noted that the exact name can bechanged.

In this example of FIG. 2, the multi-link logical entity 1 andmulti-link logical entity 2 (MLD 2) may be two separate physicaldevices, where each one comprises a number of virtual or logicaldevices. For example, multi-link logical entity 1 may comprise threeSTAs, STA1.1, STA1.2, and STA1.3 and multi-link logical entity 2 thatmay comprise three STAs, STA2.1, STA2.2, and STA2.3. The example showsthat logical device STA1.1 is communicating with logical device STA2.1over link 1, that logical device STA1.2 is communicating with logicaldevice STA2.2 over link 2, and that device STA1.3 is communicating withlogical device STA2.3 over link 3.

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for a multi-link device(MLD) between AP with logical entities and a non-AP with logicalentities, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 3, there are shown two multi-link logical entities oneither side which includes multiple STAs that can set up links with eachother. For infrastructure framework, a multi-link AP logical entity mayinclude APs (e.g., AP1, AP2, and AP3) on one side, and multi-link non-APlogical entity, which may include non-APs (STA1, STA2, and STA3) on theother side. The detailed definition is shown below. Multi-link APlogical entity (AP MLLE also can be referred to as AP MLD): A multi-linklogical entity, where each STA within the multi-link logical entity isan EHT AP. It should be noted that the term MLLE and MLD areinterchangeable and indicate the same type of entity. Throughout thisdisclosure, MLLE may be used but anywhere the MLLE term is used, it canbe replaced with MLD. Multi-link non-AP logical entity (non-AP MLLE,also can be referred to as non-AP MLD): A multi-link logical entity,where each STA within the multi-link logical entity is a non-AP EHT STA.it should be noted that this framework is a natural extension from theone link operation between two STAs, which are AP and non-AP STA underthe infrastructure framework (e.g., when an AP is used as a medium forcommunication between STAs).

In the example of FIG. 3, the multi-link AP logical entity andmulti-link non-AP logical entity may be two separate physical devices,where each one comprises a number of virtual or logical devices. Forexample, the multi-link AP logical entity may comprise three APs, AP1operating on 2.4 GHz, AP2 operating on 5 GHz, and AP3 operating on 6GHz. Further, the multi-link non-AP logical entity may comprise threenon-AP STAs, STA1 communicating with AP1 on link 1, STA2 communicatingwith AP2 on link 2, and STA3 communicating with AP3 on link 3.

The multi-link AP logical entity is shown in FIG. 3 to have access to adistribution system (DS), which is a system used to interconnect a setof BSSs to create an extended service set (ESS). The multi-link APlogical entity is also shown in FIG. 3 to have access a distributionsystem medium (DSM), which is the medium used by a DS for BSSinterconnections. Simply put, DS and DSM allow the AP to communicatewith different BSSs.

It should be understood that although the example shows three logicalentities within the multi-link AP logical entity and the three logicalentities within the multi-link non-AP logical entity, this is merely forillustration purposes and that other numbers of logical entities witheach of the multi-link AP and non-AP logical entities may be envisioned.

FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for aligned channelaccess, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

According to the distributed coordination function (DCF), beforetransmitting a data frame, a station must sense the channel to determinewhether any other station is transmitting. If the medium is found to beidle for an interval longer than the Distributed InterFrame Space(DIFS), the station continues with its transmission. On the other hand(i.e., if the medium is busy), the transmission is deferred until theend of the ongoing transmission. A random interval, referred to as thebackoff time, is then selected, which is used to initialize the backofftimer. The backoff timer is decreased (backoff countdown) for as long asthe channel is sensed as idle, stopped when a transmission is detectedon the channel, and reactivated when the channel is sensed as idle againfor more than a DIFS. The station is enabled to transmit its frame whenthe backoff timer reaches zero. The backoff time is slotted and it isspecific to each station. Specifically, the backoff time is an integernumber of slots uniformly chosen in the interval (0, CW-1). CW isdefined as the Backoff Window, also referred to as Contention Window. Atthe first transmission attempt CW=CWmin, and it is doubled at eachretransmission up to CWmax.

Referring to FIG. 4. Example of an EHT STA pausing its backoff counterat 0 so as to enable simultaneous transmission on two links.

In one or more embodiments, a aligned channel access system mayfacilitate that after counting down to zero following regular EDCAbackoff rules on a given link for an Access Category, a STA waits tillit can simultaneously transmit on both links. Such opportunity ariseswhen:

-   -   The backoff counter/timer value for the same or different access        category (AC) in a different link reaches zero.    -   The STA on the other link is in the middle of an on-going TXOP        and has the opportunity to transmit.

When an MAC service data unit (MSDU) arrives from an upper layer to theMAC layer of a device, the MSDU may first be mapped to one of fourdefined access categories (ACs) based at least in part on its userpriority (UP). These four ACs include, in descending priority order, avoice (VO) access category, a video (VI) access category, a best effort(BE) access category, and a background (BK) access category. The MSDU isthen routed to a transmit queue 212 corresponding to the AC to which theMSDU has been mapped. Each such transmit queue may have a correspondingEDCA function (EDCAF), which may define a backoff window size, anarbitration interframe space (AIFS), and a transmission opportunity(TXOP) length for all MSDUs in the corresponding AC. An internalcollision resolution scheme may resolve conflicts between the EDCAFs ofdifferent queues, and may, for example, allow an MSDU from ahigher-priority queue to access the channel and defer an MSDU from alower-priority queue when the two queues have backoff timers expire atsubstantially the same time.

In one embodiment while the STA can pause its backoff counter at zero,it still waits for the channel to be idle for the arbitrationinter-frame spacing (AIFS) time value for that AC before transmitting onthat channel. AIFS in wireless LAN communications, is a method ofprioritizing one AC over the other, such as giving voice or videopriority over email. AIFS functions by shortening or expanding theperiod a wireless node has to wait before it is allowed to transmit itsnext frame. A shorter AIFS period means a message has a higherprobability of being transmitted with low latency, which is particularlyimportant for delay-critical data such as voice or streaming video.

Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown in MLD 401 that comprises two STAs(e.g., STA 1 and STA 2). Further there are two links associated with STA1 and STA 2. For example STA 1 can transmit/receive on link 1 and STA 2can transmit/receive on link 2. In this example, there is shown that onlink one there is a transmission 420 and a backoff countdown 402 onlink 1. The backoff countdown 402 reaches zero at time T1. However onlink 2, STA 2 may have started a transmission 421 which is then followedby a backoff counter 404. In essence, the STA may still be performingits backoff countdown when the backoff countdown of STA 1 on link 1 hasalready reached zero. The STA 1 may then determine that STA 2 is stillperforming a backoff countdown 404. Based on the value of the remainingbackoff countdown 404 when the backoff counter 402 reached zero, STA 1may hold its backoff counter value at zero for a duration 403. That is,if remainder of the backoff countdown 404 is less than a threshold, STA1 may hold its backoff counter value at zero for the duration 403.However if the remainder of the backoff countdown 404 is greater than athreshold, the STA 1 may not hold its backoff counter value at zero.

In one or more embodiments, STA1 and STA2 may synchronize theirrespective transmissions (e.g., transmission 405 and transmission 407)on multiple links within the MLD 401, such that STA 1 of the MLD 401transmits in synchronization with STA 2 on separate links (e.g., link 1and link 2). In that case, STA 1 may check the STA 2transmission/reception status before starting its own transmission. Asseen in FIG. 4, after the duration 403, STA 1 starts its transmission405 on link 1 in synchronization with transmission 407 of STA 2 on link2.

An alternative way to implement this is, after reaching backoff countervalue of zero, a STA starts a new special backoff count-down using asmaller CW. Anytime while the STA is running this backoff counter theSTA can transmit a packet at any time. Regular EDCA based channel accessmay resume at the end of the transmission.

A variant of this idea would be that after counting down to zero or anytime after its backoff has been paused, the STA simply increases itsbackoff counter value to match that on the other link.

After pausing off its backoff count-down value at 0, a STA may modifyits back-off counter value to be used for channel access in the nextTXOP as follows:

In one embodiment the STA may use a shortened CW value to generate thenext random backoff counter value.

In one embodiment the STA may use this shorter CW value after asuccessful transmission.

In one embodiment the STA may use this shorter CW value after anun-successful transmission.

In one embodiment the shorter CW value may be specified by the AP in aunicast or broadcast frame (e.g., Beacon frame) or specified in the802.11standard.

In one embodiment the shorter CW value may be equal to a joint functionof the CW value to be used per regular EDCA rules and the amount of timeor the number of idle slots the STA has spent while holding off its backoff counter value at zero. For example:

Assume following a successful transmission of a packet, the CW value perregular EDCA rules is 15 while the STA has spent 8 additional idle slotsholding off its backoff counter value at 0 before transmitting thepacket. In this case, the STA may generate the next random backoffcounter value using CW of 7 (e.g., 15−8).

Assume that following an unsuccessful transmission of a packet, the CWvalue per regular EDCA rules is 31 while the STA has spent at least 16additional idle slots holding off its backoff counter value at 0 beforetransmitting the packet. In this case, the STA may generate the nextrandom backoff counter value using CW of 15 (e.g., 31−16).

In one embodiment the duration for which a STA can hold off its backoffcounter value at zero without any restriction for a specified period inthe 802.11standard.

In one embodiment the duration for which a STA can hold off its backoffcounter value at zero without any restriction may be eitherimplementation-specific or announced by the STA or fixed for the BSS. Itcould also be different for different ACs.

In one embodiment the duration for which a STA can hold off its backoffcounter value at zero is a function of the current CW value. Forexample, if the STA has counted down to zero using a CW value of 15,then it may maximally wait for 15 idle slots after reaching the backoffcounter of zero before either transmitting the packet or starting a newbackoff count down using a new random value.

In one or more embodiments, it is possible that more internal collisionevents are created as while one of the ACs in a STA has counted down tozero and is holding off its backoff count at that value, another AC inthe same STA has also counted down to zero.

In one embodiment the STA transmits packets from the oldest AC for whichthe backoff counter value of zero was reached.

In one embodiment the STA transmits packets from the highest priority ACthat has a current backoff counter value of 0.

In one embodiment the STA may transmit packet from both ACs that has acurrent backoff counter value of 0.

In one embodiment the STA may just generate the random backoff counterfor one of the ACs without doubling the contention window.

In one embodiment the AP to which the STA is associated may prevent itfrom holding off backoff counter at zero for a given period followingone such instance. This period could be explicitly signaled to the STAin a unicast or broadcast frame or specified in the 802.11 standard andcould be different for different ACs.

In one embodiment the other STAs in the same or neighboring BSS candisallow STA from holding the backoff counter at zero. This could besignaled in a beacon and valid for a given period or could be signaledin the preamble or MAC header of a frame or in a new frame.

In one embodiment this scheme can be used by any or a subset of Non-STRSTAs in a BSS. In one embodiment this scheme can be used by STR STAs ina BSS. This scheme may be used in both uplink and downlink.

As an alternative way to make PIFS based channel access fairer, thefollowing mechanism may be proposed: after PIFS based channel access ona link a STA does not perform another PIFS-based channel access forcertain time duration.

In one embodiment the duration is a timer whose value is specified,potentially per-AC, by the associated AP similar to the MU-EDCA timermechanism or is fixed to a particular value in the 802.11 standard orimplementation-specific at the STA. This could be applied at the STAthat used PIFs-based access or both STAs that simultaneouslytransmitted.

In one embodiment the duration is a new backoff count-down. The newbackoff counter value could be a new randomly generated value (per EDCArules) plus the remaining backoff timer value during PIFS-based access.

In one embodiment in case of collision the backoff counter at both STAsmay be doubled.

It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes ofillustration and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of illustrative process 500 for analigned channel access system, in accordance with one or more exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

At block 502, a device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102of FIG. 1) may perform a first backoff countdown on a first linkassociated with a first station device (STA) of the device, wherein thedevice is a multi-link device (MLD). The first backoff countdown is heldat zero for a first duration. The first duration is a duration thatresults in simultaneous transmissions on the first link and the secondlink.

At block 504, the device may detect a second backoff countdownassociated with a second STA of the MLD after the first backoffcountdown reaches zero.

At block 506, the device may determine to hold the first backoffcountdown at zero based on the value of the second backoff countdown.

At block 508, the device may transmit in synchronization on the firstlink and on the second link from the first STA and the second STArespectively based on holding the first backoff countdown at zero. Thedevice may compare a remainder of the second backoff countdown to athreshold value. The device may determine to hold the first backoffcountdown at zero when the remainder of the second backoff countdown isless than the threshold value. The device may determine not to hold offthe first backoff countdown at zero when the remainder of the secondbackoff countdown is greater than the threshold value. The device ofclaim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured todetermine an access category (AC) associated with transmissions on thefirst link and the second link.

It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes ofillustration and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 6 shows a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station600, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In one embodiment, FIG. 6 illustrates a functional blockdiagram of a communication station that may be suitable for use as anAP(s) 102 (FIG. 1) or a user device(s) 120 (FIG. 1) in accordance withsome embodiments. The communication station 600 may also be suitable foruse as a handheld device, a mobile device, a cellular telephone, asmartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer,a wearable computer device, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR)subscriber station, an access point, an access terminal, or otherpersonal communication system (PCS) device.

The communication station 600 may include communications circuitry 602and a transceiver 610 for transmitting and receiving signals to and fromother communication stations using one or more antennas 601. Thecommunications circuitry 602 may include circuitry that can operate thephysical layer (PHY) communications and/or medium access control (MAC)communications for controlling access to the wireless medium, and/or anyother communications layers for transmitting and receiving signals. Thecommunication station 600 may also include processing circuitry 606 andmemory 608 arranged to perform the operations described herein. In someembodiments, the communications circuitry 602 and the processingcircuitry 606 may be configured to perform operations detailed in theabove figures, diagrams, and flows.

In accordance with some embodiments, the communications circuitry 602may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and configure frames orpackets for communicating over the wireless medium. The communicationscircuitry 602 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals. Thecommunications circuitry 602 may also include circuitry formodulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering,amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 606 ofthe communication station 600 may include one or more processors. Inother embodiments, two or more antennas 601 may be coupled to thecommunications circuitry 602 arranged for sending and receiving signals.The memory 608 may store information for configuring the processingcircuitry 606 to perform operations for configuring and transmittingmessage frames and performing the various operations described herein.The memory 608 may include any type of memory, including non-transitorymemory, for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., acomputer). For example, the memory 608 may include a computer-readablestorage device, read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM),magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devicesand other storage devices and media.

In some embodiments, the communication station 600 may be part of aportable wireless communication device, such as a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wirelesscommunication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, asmartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, adigital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., aheart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), a wearable computerdevice, or another device that may receive and/or transmit informationwirelessly.

In some embodiments, the communication station 600 may include one ormore antennas 601. The antennas 601 may include one or more directionalor omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas,monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas,or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. Insome embodiments, instead of two or more antennas, a single antenna withmultiple apertures may be used. In these embodiments, each aperture maybe considered a separate antenna. In some multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectively separated forspatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that mayresult between each of the antennas and the antennas of a transmittingstation.

In some embodiments, the communication station 600 may include one ormore of a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multipleantennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, speakers, andother mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen includinga touch screen.

Although the communication station 600 is illustrated as having severalseparate functional elements, two or more of the functional elements maybe combined and may be implemented by combinations ofsoftware-configured elements, such as processing elements includingdigital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. Forexample, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) andcombinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing atleast the functions described herein. In some embodiments, thefunctional elements of the communication station 600 may refer to one ormore processes operating on one or more processing elements.

Certain embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination ofhardware, firmware, and software. Other embodiments may also beimplemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storagedevice, which may be read and executed by at least one processor toperform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storagedevice may include any non-transitory memory mechanism for storinginformation in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). Forexample, a computer-readable storage device may include read-only memory(ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, opticalstorage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices andmedia. In some embodiments, the communication station 600 may includeone or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored ona computer-readable storage device.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a machine 700 orsystem upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g.,methodologies) discussed herein may be performed. In other embodiments,the machine 700 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected(e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, themachine 700 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a clientmachine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example,the machine 700 may act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (orother distributed) network environments. The machine 700 may be apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a wearable computer device,a web appliance, a network router, a switch or bridge, or any machinecapable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine, such as a base station. Further,while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shallalso be taken to include any collection of machines that individually orjointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloudcomputing, software as a service (SaaS), or other computer clusterconfigurations.

Examples, as described herein, may include or may operate on logic or anumber of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangibleentities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operationswhen operating. A module includes hardware. In an example, the hardwaremay be specifically configured to carry out a specific operation (e.g.,hardwired). In another example, the hardware may include configurableexecution units (e.g., transistors, circuits, etc.) and a computerreadable medium containing instructions where the instructions configurethe execution units to carry out a specific operation when in operation.The configuring may occur under the direction of the executions units ora loading mechanism. Accordingly, the execution units arecommunicatively coupled to the computer-readable medium when the deviceis operating. In this example, the execution units may be a member ofmore than one module. For example, under operation, the execution unitsmay be configured by a first set of instructions to implement a firstmodule at one point in time and reconfigured by a second set ofinstructions to implement a second module at a second point in time.

The machine (e.g., computer system) 700 may include a hardware processor702 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit(GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a mainmemory 704 and a static memory 706, some or all of which may communicatewith each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 708. The machine 700 mayfurther include a power management device 732, a graphics display device710, an alphanumeric input device 712 (e.g., a keyboard), and a userinterface (UI) navigation device 714 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, thegraphics display device 710, alphanumeric input device 712, and UInavigation device 714 may be a touch screen display. The machine 700 mayadditionally include a storage device (i.e., drive unit) 716, a signalgeneration device 718 (e.g., a speaker), a aligned channel access device719, a network interface device/transceiver 720 coupled to antenna(s)730, and one or more sensors 728, such as a global positioning system(GPS) sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine700 may include an output controller 734, such as a serial (e.g.,universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g.,infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection tocommunicate with or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., aprinter, a card reader, etc.)). The operations in accordance with one ormore example embodiments of the present disclosure may be carried out bya baseband processor. The baseband processor may be configured togenerate corresponding baseband signals. The baseband processor mayfurther include physical layer (PHY) and medium access control layer(MAC) circuitry, and may further interface with the hardware processor702 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and forcontrolling operations of the main memory 704, the storage device 716,and/or the aligned channel access device 719. The baseband processor maybe provided on a single radio card, a single chip, or an integratedcircuit (IC).

The storage device 716 may include a machine readable medium 722 onwhich is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 724(e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of thetechniques or functions described herein. The instructions 724 may alsoreside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 704,within the static memory 706, or within the hardware processor 702during execution thereof by the machine 700. In an example, one or anycombination of the hardware processor 702, the main memory 704, thestatic memory 706, or the storage device 716 may constitutemachine-readable media.

The aligned channel access device 719 may carry out or perform any ofthe operations and processes (e.g., process 500) described and shownabove.

It is understood that the above are only a subset of what the alignedchannel access device 719 may be configured to perform and that otherfunctions included throughout this disclosure may also be performed bythe aligned channel access device 719.

While the machine-readable medium 722 is illustrated as a single medium,the term “machine-readable medium” may include a single medium ormultiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/orassociated caches and servers) configured to store the one or moreinstructions 724.

Various embodiments may be implemented fully or partially in softwareand/or firmware. This software and/or firmware may take the form ofinstructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium. Those instructions may then be read and executed by oneor more processors to enable performance of the operations describedherein. The instructions may be in any suitable form, such as but notlimited to source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executablecode, static code, dynamic code, and the like. Such a computer-readablemedium may include any tangible non-transitory medium for storinginformation in a form readable by one or more computers, such as but notlimited to read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magneticdisk storage media; optical storage media; a flash memory, etc.

The term “machine-readable medium” may include any medium that iscapable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution bythe machine 700 and that cause the machine 700 to perform any one ormore of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable ofstoring, encoding, or carrying data structures used by or associatedwith such instructions. Non-limiting machine-readable medium examplesmay include solid-state memories and optical and magnetic media. In anexample, a massed machine-readable medium includes a machine-readablemedium with a plurality of particles having resting mass. Specificexamples of massed machine-readable media may include non-volatilememory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electricallyprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), or electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices;magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks;magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

The instructions 724 may further be transmitted or received over acommunications network 726 using a transmission medium via the networkinterface device/transceiver 720 utilizing any one of a number oftransfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP),transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP),hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communicationsnetworks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephonenetworks (e.g., cellular networks), plain old telephone (POTS) networks,wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards,and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, thenetwork interface device/transceiver 720 may include one or morephysical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or moreantennas to connect to the communications network 726. In an example,the network interface device/transceiver 720 may include a plurality ofantennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-inputmultiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), ormultiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. The term “transmissionmedium” shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capableof storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by themachine 700 and includes digital or analog communications signals orother intangible media to facilitate communication of such software.

The operations and processes described and shown above may be carriedout or performed in any suitable order as desired in variousimplementations. Additionally, in certain implementations, at least aportion of the operations may be carried out in parallel. Furthermore,in certain implementations, less than or more than the operationsdescribed may be performed.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a radio architecture 105A, 105B inaccordance with some embodiments that may be implemented in any one ofthe example AP(s) 102 and/or the example user device(s) 120 of FIG. 1.Radio architecture 105A, 105B may include radio front-end module (FEM)circuitry 804 a-b, radio IC circuitry 806 a-b and baseband processingcircuitry 808 a-b. Radio architecture 105A, 105B as shown includes bothWireless Local Area Network (WLAN) functionality and Bluetooth (BT)functionality although embodiments are not so limited. In thisdisclosure, “WLAN” and “Wi-Fi” are used interchangeably.

FEM circuitry 804 a-b may include a WLAN or Wi-Fi FEM circuitry 804 aand a Bluetooth (BT) FEM circuitry 804 b. The WLAN FEM circuitry 804 amay include a receive signal path comprising circuitry configured tooperate on WLAN RF signals received from one or more antennas 801, toamplify the received signals and to provide the amplified versions ofthe received signals to the WLAN radio IC circuitry 806 a for furtherprocessing. The BT FEM circuitry 804 b may include a receive signal pathwhich may include circuitry configured to operate on BT RF signalsreceived from one or more antennas 801, to amplify the received signalsand to provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the BTradio IC circuitry 806 b for further processing. FEM circuitry 804 a mayalso include a transmit signal path which may include circuitryconfigured to amplify WLAN signals provided by the radio IC circuitry806 a for wireless transmission by one or more of the antennas 801. Inaddition, FEM circuitry 804 b may also include a transmit signal pathwhich may include circuitry configured to amplify BT signals provided bythe radio IC circuitry 806 b for wireless transmission by the one ormore antennas. In the embodiment of FIG. 8, although FEM 804 a and FEM804 b are shown as being distinct from one another, embodiments are notso limited, and include within their scope the use of an FEM (not shown)that includes a transmit path and/or a receive path for both WLAN and BTsignals, or the use of one or more FEM circuitries where at least someof the FEM circuitries share transmit and/or receive signal paths forboth WLAN and BT signals.

Radio IC circuitry 806 a-b as shown may include WLAN radio IC circuitry806 a and BT radio IC circuitry 806 b. The WLAN radio IC circuitry 806 amay include a receive signal path which may include circuitry todown-convert WLAN RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 804 a andprovide baseband signals to WLAN baseband processing circuitry 808 a. BTradio IC circuitry 806 b may in turn include a receive signal path whichmay include circuitry to down-convert BT RF signals received from theFEM circuitry 804 b and provide baseband signals to BT basebandprocessing circuitry 808 b. WLAN radio IC circuitry 806 a may alsoinclude a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convertWLAN baseband signals provided by the WLAN baseband processing circuitry808 a and provide WLAN RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 804 a forsubsequent wireless transmission by the one or more antennas 801. BTradio IC circuitry 806 b may also include a transmit signal path whichmay include circuitry to up-convert BT baseband signals provided by theBT baseband processing circuitry 808 b and provide BT RF output signalsto the FEM circuitry 804 b for subsequent wireless transmission by theone or more antennas 801. In the embodiment of FIG. 8, although radio ICcircuitries 806 a and 806 b are shown as being distinct from oneanother, embodiments are not so limited, and include within their scopethe use of a radio IC circuitry (not shown) that includes a transmitsignal path and/or a receive signal path for both WLAN and BT signals,or the use of one or more radio IC circuitries where at least some ofthe radio IC circuitries share transmit and/or receive signal paths forboth WLAN and BT signals.

Baseband processing circuitry 808 a-b may include a WLAN basebandprocessing circuitry 808 a and a BT baseband processing circuitry 808 b.The WLAN baseband processing circuitry 808 a may include a memory, suchas, for example, a set of RAM arrays in a Fast Fourier Transform orInverse Fast Fourier Transform block (not shown) of the WLAN basebandprocessing circuitry 808 a. Each of the WLAN baseband circuitry 808 aand the BT baseband circuitry 808 b may further include one or moreprocessors and control logic to process the signals received from thecorresponding WLAN or BT receive signal path of the radio IC circuitry806 a-b, and to also generate corresponding WLAN or BT baseband signalsfor the transmit signal path of the radio IC circuitry 806 a-b. Each ofthe baseband processing circuitries 808 a and 808 b may further includephysical layer (PHY) and medium access control layer (MAC) circuitry,and may further interface with a device for generation and processing ofthe baseband signals and for controlling operations of the radio ICcircuitry 806 a-b.

Referring still to FIG. 8, according to the shown embodiment, WLAN-BTcoexistence circuitry 813 may include logic providing an interfacebetween the WLAN baseband circuitry 808 a and the BT baseband circuitry808 b to enable use cases requiring WLAN and BT coexistence. Inaddition, a switch 803 may be provided between the WLAN FEM circuitry804 a and the BT FEM circuitry 804 b to allow switching between the WLANand BT radios according to application needs. In addition, although theantennas 801 are depicted as being respectively connected to the WLANFEM circuitry 804 a and the BT FEM circuitry 804 b, embodiments includewithin their scope the sharing of one or more antennas as between theWLAN and BT FEMs, or the provision of more than one antenna connected toeach of FEM 804 a or 804 b.

In some embodiments, the front-end module circuitry 804 a-b, the radioIC circuitry 806 a-b, and baseband processing circuitry 808 a-b may beprovided on a single radio card, such as wireless radio card 802. Insome other embodiments, the one or more antennas 801, the FEM circuitry804 a-b and the radio IC circuitry 806 a-b may be provided on a singleradio card. In some other embodiments, the radio IC circuitry 806 a-band the baseband processing circuitry 808 a-b may be provided on asingle chip or integrated circuit (IC), such as IC 812.

In some embodiments, the wireless radio card 802 may include a WLANradio card and may be configured for Wi-Fi communications, although thescope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some ofthese embodiments, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may be configuredto receive and transmit orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM)or orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communicationsignals over a multicarrier communication channel. The OFDM or OFDMAsignals may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some of these multicarrier embodiments, radio architecture 105A, 105Bmay be part of a Wi-Fi communication station (STA) such as a wirelessaccess point (AP), a base station or a mobile device including a Wi-Fidevice. In some of these embodiments, radio architecture 105A, 105B maybe configured to transmit and receive signals in accordance withspecific communication standards and/or protocols, such as any of theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standardsincluding, 802.11n-2009, IEEE 802.11-2012, IEEE 802.11-2016,802.11n-2009, 802.11ac, 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11 ay and/or 802.11axstandards and/or proposed specifications for WLANs, although the scopeof embodiments is not limited in this respect. Radio architecture 105A,105B may also be suitable to transmit and/or receive communications inaccordance with other techniques and standards.

In some embodiments, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may be configuredfor high-efficiency Wi-Fi (HEW) communications in accordance with theIEEE 802.11ax standard. In these embodiments, the radio architecture105A, 105B may be configured to communicate in accordance with an OFDMAtechnique, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in thisrespect.

In some other embodiments, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may beconfigured to transmit and receive signals transmitted using one or moreother modulation techniques such as spread spectrum modulation (e.g.,direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) and/or frequencyhopping code division multiple access (FH-CDMA)), time-divisionmultiplexing (TDM) modulation, and/or frequency-division multiplexing(FDM) modulation, although the scope of the embodiments is not limitedin this respect.

In some embodiments, as further shown in FIG. 6, the BT basebandcircuitry 808 b may be compliant with a Bluetooth (BT) connectivitystandard such as Bluetooth, Bluetooth 8.0 or Bluetooth 6.0, or any otheriteration of the Bluetooth Standard.

In some embodiments, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may include otherradio cards, such as a cellular radio card configured for cellular(e.g., SGPP such as LTE, LTE-Advanced or 7G communications).

In some IEEE 802.11 embodiments, the radio architecture 105A, 105B maybe configured for communication over various channel bandwidthsincluding bandwidths having center frequencies of about 900 MHz, 2.4GHz, 5 GHz, and bandwidths of about 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 5 MHz, 5.5 MHz, 6 MHz,8 MHz, 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz (with contiguous bandwidths) or80+80 MHz (160 MHz) (with non-contiguous bandwidths). In someembodiments, a 920 MHz channel bandwidth may be used. The scope of theembodiments is not limited with respect to the above center frequencieshowever.

FIG. 9 illustrates WLAN FEM circuitry 804 a in accordance with someembodiments. Although the example of FIG. 9 is described in conjunctionwith the WLAN FEM circuitry 804 a, the example of FIG. 9 may bedescribed in conjunction with the example BT FEM circuitry 804 b (FIG.8), although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 804 a may include a TX/RX switch902 to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEMcircuitry 804 a may include a receive signal path and a transmit signalpath. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 804 a may include alow-noise amplifier (LNA) 906 to amplify received RF signals 903 andprovide the amplified received RF signals 907 as an output (e.g., to theradio IC circuitry 806 a-b (FIG. 8)). The transmit signal path of thecircuitry 804 a may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RFsignals 909 (e.g., provided by the radio IC circuitry 806 a-b), and oneor more filters 912, such as band-pass filters (BPFs), low-pass filters(LPFs) or other types of filters, to generate RF signals 915 forsubsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the antennas 801 (FIG.8)) via an example duplexer 914.

In some dual-mode embodiments for Wi-Fi communication, the FEM circuitry804 a may be configured to operate in either the 2.4 GHz frequencyspectrum or the 5 GHz frequency spectrum. In these embodiments, thereceive signal path of the FEM circuitry 804 a may include a receivesignal path duplexer 904 to separate the signals from each spectrum aswell as provide a separate LNA 906 for each spectrum as shown. In theseembodiments, the transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 804 a mayalso include a power amplifier 910 and a filter 912, such as a BPF, anLPF or another type of filter for each frequency spectrum and a transmitsignal path duplexer 904 to provide the signals of one of the differentspectrums onto a single transmit path for subsequent transmission by theone or more of the antennas 801 (FIG. 8). In some embodiments, BTcommunications may utilize the 2.4 GHz signal paths and may utilize thesame FEM circuitry 804 a as the one used for WLAN communications.

FIG. 10 illustrates radio IC circuitry 806 a in accordance with someembodiments. The radio IC circuitry 806 a is one example of circuitrythat may be suitable for use as the WLAN or BT radio IC circuitry 806a/806 b (FIG. 8), although other circuitry configurations may also besuitable. Alternatively, the example of FIG. 10 may be described inconjunction with the example BT radio IC circuitry 806 b.

In some embodiments, the radio IC circuitry 806 a may include a receivesignal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of theradio IC circuitry 806 a may include at least mixer circuitry 1002, suchas, for example, down-conversion mixer circuitry, amplifier circuitry1006 and filter circuitry 1008. The transmit signal path of the radio ICcircuitry 806 a may include at least filter circuitry 1012 and mixercircuitry 1014, such as, for example, up-conversion mixer circuitry.Radio IC circuitry 806 a may also include synthesizer circuitry 1004 forsynthesizing a frequency 1005 for use by the mixer circuitry 1002 andthe mixer circuitry 1014. The mixer circuitry 1002 and/or 1014 may each,according to some embodiments, be configured to provide directconversion functionality. The latter type of circuitry presents a muchsimpler architecture as compared with standard super-heterodyne mixercircuitries, and any flicker noise brought about by the same may bealleviated for example through the use of OFDM modulation. FIG. 10illustrates only a simplified version of a radio IC circuitry, and mayinclude, although not shown, embodiments where each of the depictedcircuitries may include more than one component. For instance, mixercircuitry 1014 may each include one or more mixers, and filtercircuitries 1008 and/or 1012 may each include one or more filters, suchas one or more BPFs and/or LPFs according to application needs. Forexample, when mixer circuitries are of the direct-conversion type, theymay each include two or more mixers.

In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1002 may be configured todown-convert RF signals 907 received from the FEM circuitry 804 a-b(FIG. 8) based on the synthesized frequency 1005 provided by synthesizercircuitry 1004. The amplifier circuitry 1006 may be configured toamplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 1008 mayinclude an LPF configured to remove unwanted signals from thedown-converted signals to generate output baseband signals 1007. Outputbaseband signals 1007 may be provided to the baseband processingcircuitry 808 a-b (FIG. 8) for further processing. In some embodiments,the output baseband signals 1007 may be zero-frequency baseband signals,although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry1002 may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodimentsis not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1014 may be configured toup-convert input baseband signals 1011 based on the synthesizedfrequency 1005 provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1004 to generate RFoutput signals 909 for the FEM circuitry 804 a-b. The baseband signals1011 may be provided by the baseband processing circuitry 808 a-b andmay be filtered by filter circuitry 1012. The filter circuitry 1012 mayinclude an LPF or a BPF, although the scope of the embodiments is notlimited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1002 and the mixer circuitry1014 may each include two or more mixers and may be arranged forquadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion respectively with thehelp of synthesizer 1004. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1002and the mixer circuitry 1014 may each include two or more mixers eachconfigured for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In someembodiments, the mixer circuitry 1002 and the mixer circuitry 1014 maybe arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion,respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1002 and themixer circuitry 1014 may be configured for super-heterodyne operation,although this is not a requirement.

Mixer circuitry 1002 may comprise, according to one embodiment:quadrature passive mixers (e.g., for the in-phase (I) and quadraturephase (Q) paths). In such an embodiment, RF input signal 907 from FIG.10 may be down-converted to provide I and Q baseband output signals tobe sent to the baseband processor.

Quadrature passive mixers may be driven by zero and ninety-degreetime-varying LO switching signals provided by a quadrature circuitrywhich may be configured to receive a LO frequency (fLO) from a localoscillator or a synthesizer, such as LO frequency 1005 of synthesizer1004 (FIG. 10). In some embodiments, the LO frequency may be the carrierfrequency, while in other embodiments, the LO frequency may be afraction of the carrier frequency (e.g., one-half the carrier frequency,one-third the carrier frequency). In some embodiments, the zero andninety-degree time-varying switching signals may be generated by thesynthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited inthis respect.

In some embodiments, the LO signals may differ in duty cycle (thepercentage of one period in which the LO signal is high) and/or offset(the difference between start points of the period). In someembodiments, the LO signals may have an 85% duty cycle and an 80%offset. In some embodiments, each branch of the mixer circuitry (e.g.,the in-phase (I) and quadrature phase (Q) path) may operate at an 80%duty cycle, which may result in a significant reduction is powerconsumption.

The RF input signal 907 (FIG. 9) may comprise a balanced signal,although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.The I and Q baseband output signals may be provided to low-noiseamplifier, such as amplifier circuitry 1006 (FIG. 10) or to filtercircuitry 1008 (FIG. 10).

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals 1007 and the inputbaseband signals 1011 may be analog baseband signals, although the scopeof the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals 1007 and the input basebandsignals 1011 may be digital baseband signals. In these alternateembodiments, the radio IC circuitry may include analog-to-digitalconverter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may beprovided for processing signals for each spectrum, or for otherspectrums not mentioned here, although the scope of the embodiments isnot limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1004 may be afractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although thescope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other typesof frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizercircuitry 1004 may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier,or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequencydivider. According to some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1004may include digital synthesizer circuitry. An advantage of using adigital synthesizer circuitry is that, although it may still includesome analog components, its footprint may be scaled down much more thanthe footprint of an analog synthesizer circuitry. In some embodiments,frequency input into synthesizer circuitry 1004 may be provided by avoltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement.A divider control input may further be provided by either the basebandprocessing circuitry 808 a-b (FIG. 8) depending on the desired outputfrequency 1005. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N)may be determined from a look-up table (e.g., within a Wi-Fi card) basedon a channel number and a channel center frequency as determined orindicated by the example application processor 810. The applicationprocessor 810 may include, or otherwise be connected to, one of theexample secure signal converter 101 or the example received signalconverter 103 (e.g., depending on which device the example radioarchitecture is implemented in).

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 1004 may be configured togenerate a carrier frequency as the output frequency 1005, while inother embodiments, the output frequency 1005 may be a fraction of thecarrier frequency (e.g., one-half the carrier frequency, one-third thecarrier frequency). In some embodiments, the output frequency 1005 maybe a LO frequency (fLO).

FIG. 11 illustrates a functional block diagram of baseband processingcircuitry 808 a in accordance with some embodiments. The basebandprocessing circuitry 808 a is one example of circuitry that may besuitable for use as the baseband processing circuitry 808 a (FIG. 8),although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable.Alternatively, the example of FIG. 10 may be used to implement theexample BT baseband processing circuitry 808 b of FIG. 8.

The baseband processing circuitry 808 a may include a receive basebandprocessor (RX BBP) 1102 for processing receive baseband signals 1009provided by the radio IC circuitry 806 a-b (FIG. 8) and a transmitbaseband processor (TX BBP) 1104 for generating transmit basebandsignals 1011 for the radio IC circuitry 806 a-b. The baseband processingcircuitry 808 a may also include control logic 1106 for coordinating theoperations of the baseband processing circuitry 808 a.

In some embodiments (e.g., when analog baseband signals are exchangedbetween the baseband processing circuitry 808 a-b and the radio ICcircuitry 806 a-b), the baseband processing circuitry 808 a may includeADC 1110 to convert analog baseband signals 1109 received from the radioIC circuitry 806 a-b to digital baseband signals for processing by theRX BBP 1102. In these embodiments, the baseband processing circuitry 808a may also include DAC 1112 to convert digital baseband signals from theTX BBP 1104 to analog baseband signals 1111.

In some embodiments that communicate OFDM signals or OFDMA signals, suchas through baseband processor 808 a, the transmit baseband processor1104 may be configured to generate OFDM or OFDMA signals as appropriatefor transmission by performing an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT).The receive baseband processor 1102 may be configured to processreceived OFDM signals or OFDMA signals by performing an FFT. In someembodiments, the receive baseband processor 1102 may be configured todetect the presence of an OFDM signal or OFDMA signal by performing anautocorrelation, to detect a preamble, such as a short preamble, and byperforming a cross-correlation, to detect a long preamble. The preamblesmay be part of a predetermined frame structure for Wi-Fi communication.

Referring back to FIG. 8, in some embodiments, the antennas 801 (FIG. 8)may each comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas,including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patchantennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennassuitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectivelyseparated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the differentchannel characteristics that may result. Antennas 801 may each include aset of phased-array antennas, although embodiments are not so limited.

Although the radio architecture 105A, 105B is illustrated as havingseveral separate functional elements, one or more of the functionalelements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations ofsoftware-configured elements, such as processing elements includingdigital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. Forexample, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) andcombinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing atleast the functions described herein. In some embodiments, thefunctional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on oneor more processing elements.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other embodiments. The terms “computing device,” “userdevice,” “communication station,” “station,” “handheld device,” “mobiledevice,” “wireless device” and “user equipment” (UE) as used hereinrefers to a wireless communication device such as a cellular telephone,a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptopcomputer, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, anaccess point, a printer, a point of sale device, an access terminal, orother personal communication system (PCS) device. The device may beeither mobile or stationary.

As used within this document, the term “communicate” is intended toinclude transmitting, or receiving, or both transmitting and receiving.This may be particularly useful in claims when describing theorganization of data that is being transmitted by one device andreceived by another, but only the functionality of one of those devicesis required to infringe the claim. Similarly, the bidirectional exchangeof data between two devices (both devices transmit and receive duringthe exchange) may be described as “communicating,” when only thefunctionality of one of those devices is being claimed. The term“communicating” as used herein with respect to a wireless communicationsignal includes transmitting the wireless communication signal and/orreceiving the wireless communication signal. For example, a wirelesscommunication unit, which is capable of communicating a wirelesscommunication signal, may include a wireless transmitter to transmit thewireless communication signal to at least one other wirelesscommunication unit, and/or a wireless communication receiver to receivethe wireless communication signal from at least one other wirelesscommunication unit.

As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the use of the ordinaladjectives “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., to describe a commonobject, merely indicates that different instances of like objects arebeing referred to and are not intended to imply that the objects sodescribed must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, inranking, or in any other manner.

The term “access point” (AP) as used herein may be a fixed station. Anaccess point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station,an evolved node B (eNodeB), or some other similar terminology known inthe art. An access terminal may also be called a mobile station, userequipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or some other similarterminology known in the art. Embodiments disclosed herein generallypertain to wireless networks. Some embodiments may relate to wirelessnetworks that operate in accordance with one of the IEEE 802.11standards.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with various devices andsystems, for example, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, amobile computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tabletcomputer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, apersonal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld PDA device, anon-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device, a vehiculardevice, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a consumerdevice, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a wireless communicationstation, a wireless communication device, a wireless access point (AP),a wired or wireless router, a wired or wireless modem, a video device,an audio device, an audio-video (A/V) device, a wired or wirelessnetwork, a wireless area network, a wireless video area network (WVAN),a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a personal areanetwork (PAN), a wireless PAN (WPAN), and the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one way and/or two-wayradio communication systems, cellular radio-telephone communicationsystems, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a wireless telephone, apersonal communication system (PCS) device, a PDA device whichincorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portableglobal positioning system (GPS) device, a device which incorporates aGPS receiver or transceiver or chip, a device which incorporates an RFIDelement or chip, a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transceiver ordevice, a single input multiple output (SIMO) transceiver or device, amultiple input single output (MISO) transceiver or device, a devicehaving one or more internal antennas and/or external antennas, digitalvideo broadcast (DVB) devices or systems, multi-standard radio devicesor systems, a wired or wireless handheld device, e.g., a smartphone, awireless application protocol (WAP) device, or the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one or more types ofwireless communication signals and/or systems following one or morewireless communication protocols, for example, radio frequency (RF),infrared (IR), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal FDM(OFDM), time-division multiplexing (TDM), time-division multiple access(TDMA), extended TDMA (E-TDMA), general packet radio service (GPRS),extended GPRS, code-division multiple access (CDMA), wideband CDMA(WCDMA), CDMA 2000, single-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier CDMA,multi-carrier modulation (MDM), discrete multi-tone (DMT), Bluetooth®,global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, ZigBee, ultra-wideband(UWB), global system for mobile communications (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3G,3.5G, 4G, fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, 3GPP, long termevolution (LTE), LTE advanced, enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution(EDGE), or the like. Other embodiments may be used in various otherdevices, systems, and/or networks.

The following examples pertain to further embodiments.

Example 1 may include a device comprising processing circuitry coupledto storage, the processing circuitry configured to: perform a firstbackoff countdown on a first link associated with a first station device(STA) of the device, wherein the device may be an multi-link device(MLD); detect a second backoff countdown associated with a second STA ofthe MLD after the first backoff countdown reaches zero; determine tohold the first backoff countdown at zero based on the value of thesecond backoff countdown; and transmit in synchronization on the firstlink and on the second link from the first STA and the second STArespectively based on holding the first backoff countdown at zero.

Example 2 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured tocompare a remainder of the second backoff countdown to a thresholdvalue.

Example 3 may include the device of example 2 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured todetermine to hold the first backoff countdown at zero when the remainderof the second backoff countdown may be less than the threshold value.

Example 4 may include the device of example 2 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured todetermine not to hold off the first backoff countdown at zero when theremainder of the second backoff countdown may be greater than thethreshold value.

Example 5 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the first backoff countdown may be held at zero for afirst duration.

Example 6 may include the device of example 5 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the first duration may be a duration that results insimultaneous transmissions on the first link and the second link.

Example 7 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured todetermine an access category (AC) associated with transmissions on thefirst link and the second link.

Example 8 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other exampleherein, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit andreceive wireless signals.

Example 9 may include the device of example 8 and/or some other exampleherein, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver tocause to send a frame.

Example 10 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-executable instructions which when executed by one or moreprocessors of a device result in performing operations comprising:performing a first backoff countdown on a first link associated with afirst station device (STA) of the device, wherein the device may be anmulti-link device (MLD); detecting a second backoff countdown associatedwith a second STA of the MLD after the first backoff countdown reacheszero; determining to hold the first backoff countdown at zero based onthe value of the second backoff countdown; and transmitting insynchronization on the first link and on the second link from the firstSTA and the second STA respectively based on holding the first backoffcountdown at zero.

Example 11 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operationsfurther comprise comparing a remainder of the second backoff countdownto a threshold value.

Example 12 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 11 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operationsfurther comprise determining to hold the first backoff countdown at zerowhen the remainder of the second backoff countdown may be less than thethreshold value.

Example 13 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 11 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operationsfurther comprise determining not to hold off the first backoff countdownat zero when the remainder of the second backoff countdown may begreater than the threshold value.

Example 14 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first backoffcountdown may be held at zero for a first duration.

Example 15 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 14 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first durationmay be a duration that results in simultaneous transmissions on thefirst link and the second link.

Example 16 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium ofexample 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operationsfurther comprise determining an access category (AC) associated withtransmissions on the first link and the second link.

Example 17 may include a method comprising: performing, by one or moreprocessors of a device, a first backoff countdown on a first linkassociated with a first station device (STA) of the device, wherein thedevice may be an multi-link device (MLD); detecting a second backoffcountdown associated with a second STA of the MLD after the firstbackoff countdown reaches zero; determining to hold the first backoffcountdown at zero based on the value of the second backoff countdown;and transmitting in synchronization on the first link and on the secondlink from the first STA and the second STA respectively based on holdingthe first backoff countdown at zero.

Example 18 may include the method of example 17 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising comparing a remainder of the secondbackoff countdown to a threshold value.

Example 19 may include the method of example 18 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising determining to hold the first backoffcountdown at zero when the remainder of the second backoff countdown maybe less than the threshold value.

Example 20 may include the method of example 18 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising determining not to hold off the firstbackoff countdown at zero when the remainder of the second backoffcountdown may be greater than the threshold value.

Example 21 may include the method of example 17 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the first backoff countdown may be held at zerofor a first duration.

Example 22 may include the method of example 21 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the first duration may be a duration thatresults in simultaneous transmissions on the first link and the secondlink.

Example 23 may include the method of example 17 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising determining an access category (AC)associated with transmissions on the first link and the second link.

Example 24 may include an apparatus comprising means for: performing afirst backoff countdown on a first link associated with a first stationdevice (STA) of a device associated with apparatus, wherein the devicemay be an multi-link device (MLD); detecting a second backoff countdownassociated with a second STA of the MLD after the first backoffcountdown reaches zero; determining to hold the first backoff countdownat zero based on the value of the second backoff countdown; andtransmitting in synchronization on the first link and on the second linkfrom the first STA and the second STA respectively based on holding thefirst backoff countdown at zero.

Example 25 may include the apparatus of example 24 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising comparing a remainder of the secondbackoff countdown to a threshold value.

Example 26 may include the apparatus of example 25 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising determining to hold the first backoffcountdown at zero when the remainder of the second backoff countdown maybe less than the threshold value.

Example 27 may include the apparatus of example 25 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising determining not to hold off the firstbackoff countdown at zero when the remainder of the second backoffcountdown may be greater than the threshold value.

Example 28 may include the apparatus of example 24 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the first backoff countdown may be held at zerofor a first duration.

Example 29 may include the apparatus of example 28 and/or some otherexample herein, wherein the first duration may be a duration thatresults in simultaneous transmissions on the first link and the secondlink.

Example 30 may include the apparatus of example 24 and/or some otherexample herein, further comprising determining an access category (AC)associated with transmissions on the first link and the second link.Example 31 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, uponexecution of the instructions by one or more processors of theelectronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method describedin or related to any of examples 1-30, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 32 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples 1-30, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 33 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-30, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 34 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-30, or portions thereof.

Example 35 may include a method of communicating in a wireless networkas shown and described herein.

Example 36 may include a system for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Example 37 may include a device for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Embodiments according to the disclosure are in particular disclosed inthe attached claims directed to a method, a storage medium, a device anda computer program product, wherein any feature mentioned in one claimcategory, e.g., method, can be claimed in another claim category, e.g.,system, as well. The dependencies or references back in the attachedclaims are chosen for formal reasons only. However, any subject matterresulting from a deliberate reference back to any previous claims (inparticular multiple dependencies) can be claimed as well, so that anycombination of claims and the features thereof are disclosed and can beclaimed regardless of the dependencies chosen in the attached claims.The subject-matter which can be claimed comprises not only thecombinations of features as set out in the attached claims but also anyother combination of features in the claims, wherein each featurementioned in the claims can be combined with any other feature orcombination of other features in the claims. Furthermore, any of theembodiments and features described or depicted herein can be claimed ina separate claim and/or in any combination with any embodiment orfeature described or depicted herein or with any of the features of theattached claims.

The foregoing description of one or more implementations providesillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed.Modifications and variations are possible in light of the aboveteachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Certain aspects of the disclosure are described above with reference toblock and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and/orcomputer program products according to various implementations. It willbe understood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and the flowdiagrams, respectively, may be implemented by computer-executableprogram instructions. Likewise, some blocks of the block diagrams andflow diagrams may not necessarily need to be performed in the orderpresented, or may not necessarily need to be performed at all, accordingto some implementations.

These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto aspecial-purpose computer or other particular machine, a processor, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particularmachine, such that the instructions that execute on the computer,processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create meansfor implementing one or more functions specified in the flow diagramblock or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be storedin a computer-readable storage media or memory that may direct acomputer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function ina particular manner, such that the instructions stored in thecomputer-readable storage media produce an article of manufactureincluding instruction means that implement one or more functionsspecified in the flow diagram block or blocks. As an example, certainimplementations may provide for a computer program product, comprising acomputer-readable storage medium having a computer-readable program codeor program instructions implemented therein, said computer-readableprogram code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functionsspecified in the flow diagram block or blocks. The computer programinstructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus to cause a series of operational elements orsteps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus toproduce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions thatexecute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elementsor steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow diagramblock or blocks.

Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams supportcombinations of means for performing the specified functions,combinations of elements or steps for performing the specified functionsand program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowdiagrams, may be implemented by special-purpose, hardware-based computersystems that perform the specified functions, elements or steps, orcombinations of special-purpose hardware and computer instructions.

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainimplementations could include, while other implementations do notinclude, certain features, elements, and/or operations. Thus, suchconditional language is not generally intended to imply that features,elements, and/or operations are in any way required for one or moreimplementations or that one or more implementations necessarily includelogic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whetherthese features, elements, and/or operations are included or are to beperformed in any particular implementation.

Many modifications and other implementations of the disclosure set forthherein will be apparent having the benefit of the teachings presented inthe foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it isto be understood that the disclosure is not to be limited to thespecific implementations disclosed and that modifications and otherimplementations are intended to be included within the scope of theappended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they areused in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes oflimitation.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device, the device comprising processingcircuitry coupled to storage, the processing circuitry configured to:perform a first backoff countdown on a first link associated with afirst station device (STA) of the device, wherein the device is anmulti-link device (MLD); detect a second backoff countdown associatedwith a second STA of the MLD after the first backoff countdown reacheszero; determine to hold the first backoff countdown at zero based on thevalue of the second backoff countdown; and transmit in synchronizationon the first link and on the second link from the first STA and thesecond STA respectively based on holding the first backoff countdown atzero.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to compare a remainder of the second backoffcountdown to a threshold value.
 3. The device of claim 2, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to determine to hold thefirst backoff countdown at zero when the remainder of the second backoffcountdown is less than the threshold value.
 4. The device of claim 2,wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine notto hold off the first backoff countdown at zero when the remainder ofthe second backoff countdown is greater than the threshold value.
 5. Thedevice of claim 1, wherein the first backoff countdown is held at zerofor a first duration.
 6. The device of claim 5, wherein the firstduration is a duration that results in simultaneous transmissions on thefirst link and the second link.
 7. The device of claim 1, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to determine an accesscategory (AC) associated with transmissions on the first link and thesecond link.
 8. The device of claim 1, further comprising a transceiverconfigured to transmit and receive wireless signals.
 9. The device ofclaim 8, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver tocause to send a frame.
 10. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumstoring computer-executable instructions which when executed by one ormore processors result in performing operations comprising: performing afirst backoff countdown on a first link associated with a first stationdevice (STA) of the device, wherein the device is an multi-link device(MLD); detecting a second backoff countdown associated with a second STAof the MLD after the first backoff countdown reaches zero; determiningto hold the first backoff countdown at zero based on the value of thesecond backoff countdown; and transmitting in synchronization on thefirst link and on the second link from the first STA and the second STArespectively based on holding the first backoff countdown at zero. 11.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein theoperations further comprise comparing a remainder of the second backoffcountdown to a threshold value.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise determiningto hold the first backoff countdown at zero when the remainder of thesecond backoff countdown is less than the threshold value.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein theoperations further comprise determining not to hold off the firstbackoff countdown at zero when the remainder of the second backoffcountdown is greater than the threshold value.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first backoffcountdown is held at zero for a first duration.
 15. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the first duration is aduration that results in simultaneous transmissions on the first linkand the second link.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 10, wherein the operations further comprise determining an accesscategory (AC) associated with transmissions on the first link and thesecond link.
 17. A method comprising: performing, by one or moreprocessors, a first backoff countdown on a first link associated with afirst station device (STA) of the device, wherein the device is anmulti-link device (MLD); detecting a second backoff countdown associatedwith a second STA of the MLD after the first backoff countdown reacheszero; determining to hold the first backoff countdown at zero based onthe value of the second backoff countdown; and transmitting insynchronization on the first link and on the second link from the firstSTA and the second STA respectively based on holding the first backoffcountdown at zero.
 18. The method of claim 17, further comprisingcomparing a remainder of the second backoff countdown to a thresholdvalue.
 19. The method of claim 18, further comprising determining tohold the first backoff countdown at zero when the remainder of thesecond backoff countdown is less than the threshold value.
 20. Themethod of claim 18, further comprising determining not to hold off thefirst backoff countdown at zero when the remainder of the second backoffcountdown is greater than the threshold value.